Despite Donald Trump’s admission that President Obama was born in the United States, Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, on Tuesday pledged to continue pushing birtherism.
“I don’t care where he’s from,” Arpaio said while speaking to the Surprise Tea Party, according to the Arizona Republic. “We are looking at a forged document. Period.”
“I know all the politicians say, ‘Sheriff, don’t talk about it,’” he continued. “But how can I back down when we started it? I’m not going to just forget it.”
Arpaio has long been a vocal member of the birther movement, assigning an investigative team to look into Obama’s birth certificate in 2011 following a request from the Surprise Tea Party. Arpaio has continued to question Obama’s citizenship and offered a reminder late last year that Trump was also a vocal member of the birther movement.
But on Tuesday, Arpaio distanced himself from Trump.
“I had nothing to do with Trump on the birth certificate,” he told Surprise Tea Party members, according to the Arizona Republic. “We did it on our own, because of you guys.”
